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The Fox Plan 

°f 

Photoplay Writing 


A Book of Inspiration 
Offering Earnest Men and 
Women Opportunity for 
Success as Photodramatists 



Faculty and Advisory Council 


Charles Donald Fox 
J. E. D. Meador 
B. M. Conlon 
Harold Harvey 


Watterson R. Rothacker 
Luther Reed 
Hope Hampton 
Vera Ellen Caspary 


Officers 

Charles Donald Fox, President and Director, Department of Education 
Clarence H. Van Vliet, Vice President and Business Manager 
Violet Edith Peterson, Secretary 
Jacob J. Lievense, Treasurer 


FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 

30 North Michigan Avenue 

CHICAGO 




1HI 



m 


Contents Copyright, 1922, Fox Photoplay Institute, Chicago 




















































CHARLES DONALD FOX 


President and Director of Education of the Fox Photoplay 
Institute, screen journalist, editor, lecturer, and teacher, 
author of “Little Movie Mirror Books,” “Life Portraits of 
Famous Film Folk,” and co-author of “Who’s Who on the 
Screen,” “The Prodigal Daughter,” “Thou Shalt Not Judge,” 
“The Queen of Hearts,” “Sierra Dawn,” “The Worshiper.” 
Editor of “Opportunities in the Motion Picture Industry.” 


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FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 


The Birth of an Idea 



4 ROUND a luncheon table in a private room at one of New York’s famous restaurants sat a 
r\ little group of men. They represented various branches of the motion picture industry. 

There was a producer who is a power in the moving picture world. There was a director famed 
for the artistry of his creations. There was a photoplaywright who had risen from obscurity to nation¬ 
wide fame almost overnight. There was an actor, a veteran who had been connected with moving 
pictures almost since their birth. They were listening with intense interest to the enthusiastic words 
of a screen journalist, a man who had spent years studying the motion picture industry from every 
angle. That man was Charles Donald Fox. The scene was the birthplace of the Fox Photoplay 
Institute. 

The little group had been discussing the great problem of the motion picture industry—the lack 
of good plays! It was the opinion of these men—and the previously voiced opinion of most of the lead¬ 
ers in the moving picture world—that there was material in abundance in every village and hamlet in 
the country—that there were plenty of people who had original ideas. But all agreed the one thing 
these people lacked was the technical knowledge that would enable them to create salable plays from 
the material around them. 

Then Charles Donald Fox presented his idea to the assembled company. 

Why not tram potential screen writers, give them the knowledge that would enable them to 
recognize dramatic material, and to construct this material into plots and plays the producers could 
use? 

The founding of the Fox Photoplay Institute was the logical solution to the moving picture in¬ 
dustry’s greatest problem. Its one purpose is to provide the essential training in the technique and 
construction of the photo drama. The Fox Photoplay Institute is not a sales organization running a 
correspondence school for the purpose of finding literary merchandise to sell. It is an institution 
devoted to educational work in the moving picture industry. 

In recognition of the assistance of film executives, who because of their constructive criticism 
aided in the founding of this institution and in order to co-operate with them to the greatest extent 
as well as to encourage students to produce salable scenarios, the Fox Photoplay Institute includes 
a Placement Bureau whose function it is to submit the work of students to the studios. The seal of the 
Fox Photoplay Institute in connection with the author’s name gives the manuscript a certain prestige 
hardly obtainable by the amateur, and assures the studio reader that the manuscript has been care¬ 
fully chosen with the requirements of that particular studio well in mind. As valuable as the Place¬ 
ment Bureau is to the student who has completed his training, the founders of the institution want to 
impress all students with the fact that this is not fundamentally a sales organization. The Fox Photo¬ 
play Institute is devoted to educational work. 

The Fox Photoplay Institute Plan of training enables you to study film play writing at home in 
your spare hours. No previous literary training is necessary. 

A broad, general education is a splendid asset to a film writer just as it is to any person. But it is 
not necessary! There are just three elements that are absolutely essential to a photodramatist. One 
is imagination, the creative instinct. The second is ambition. The third is knowledge of photoplay 
construction and technique. 

The first qualification, creative instinct—you already possess. Otherwise you would not be in¬ 
terested in photoplay writing. The second, ambition, you possess also, or you would not have asked 
for this book. Now all you need, to be reasonably certain of success is the third essential—the ability 
to construct photoplays, the knowledge that will enable you to use your creative talent and ambition 
along the most lucrative lines. 

That ability is what the Fox Photoplay Institute can give you. That is the purpose for which it 
was created. 


3 










FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 




Harold Harvey 



Watterson R. Rothacker 


Advisory Council of 

Screen leaders actively co-operating with 
the faculty of the Fox Photo¬ 
play Institute 

E ACH of the members of the Advisory Council is a 
specialist in some branch of the motion picture 
industry, and his services as a member of the 
Advisory Council assures the student that the Fox Photo¬ 
play Institute is qualified to give comprehensive instruc¬ 
tion and unprejudiced and sound advice as to the photo¬ 
play market. 


J. E. D. Meador 

J. E. D. Meador received his first literary training at 
the University of Chicago. He has had considerable 
experience as a newspaper writer, serving in an editorial 
capacity on The New York Herald , the Chicago Tribune , 
the Chicago Record-Herald , the New York Sun , the New 
York World and the Paris (France) edition of The New 
York Herald. 

With the outbreak of the war, Mr. Meador served as 
special correspondent in the fighting sector for both the 
London Times and The New York Times. He has achieved 
a national reputation as a writer, having contributed many 
articles and short stories to the Century Magazine , Col¬ 
lier’s Weekly and the Saturday Evening Post. Mr. Meador 
has been for some years an executive of the Metro Pictures 
Corporation. 


B. M. Cordon 

B. M. Conlon is a pioneer motion picture journalist. 
During an active career as a writer, he has contributed 
many interesting articles to the photoplay publications, 
and stories to the popular fiction magazines. He is the 
author of several successful photoplays. As executive 
head of one of the most important departments of Vita- 
graph, Inc., he has made an enviable record both for his 
associates and himself. Mr. Conlon’s comprehensive 
knowledge of the needs of motion picture producers makes 
his services as Member of the Advisory Council particu¬ 
larly valuable to Fox Photoplay students. 


Luther Reed 

After graduation from Columbia University, Mr. Reed 
entered upon an active literary career as a member of the 
editorial staff of The New York Herald. He has enjoyed 
a remarkable success as a writer and scenarioist, having 


4 

















Fox Photoplay Institute 

adapted many popular novels and stage successes for the 
screen. Mr. Reed is the author of that brilliant stage 
success “Dear Me” and of such successful photoplays as 
“White Ashes” and “Cinderella’s Twin.” His latest work 
is the adaptation of the famous novel “When Knighthood 
Was in Flower” for photoplay production by Cosmo¬ 
politan Productions. 


Hope Hampton 

Hope Hampton has had a meteoric rise to stardom in the 
world of the silent drama. Making her start as a star of 
Maurice Tourneur’s production, “A Modern Salome,” 
Miss Hampton quickly became a producer in her own 
right. Hope Hampton Productions have given the public 
such splendid pictures as “Love’s Penalty,” “The Light 
in the Dark,” and the adaptation of Fannie Hurst’s 
famous novel, “Star Dust,” all of which have been 
released through Associated First National Pictures. 


Harold Harvey 

After many years’ association with the Famous Players- 
Lasky Corporation, Mr. Harvey was appointed editor of 
Filmplay Magazine. As guiding head of this splendid 
motion picture magazine, Mr. Harvey has achieved an 
outstanding success which places him in the front ranks 
of motion picture editors. He is a prolific and brilliant 
author, having done considerable writing for newspapers, 
magazines, the legitimate stage and the screen. As a 
member of the Advisory Council, Mr. Harvey gives stu¬ 
dents the benefits of his years of experience in the motion 
picture industry. 


Watterson R. Rothacker 

Watterson R. Rothacker enjoys the signal distinction 
of being the first man to specialize in motion pictures 
devoted to industrial and commercial education. As 
President of the Rothacker Film Manufacturing Com¬ 
pany, Mr. Rothacker began an active career in Chicago. 
Since then, his operations have stretched across the con¬ 
tinent and just a year ago, the opening of the Rothacker- 
Aller plant in Hollywood, California, was announced. 
Industrial and educational motion pictures are given an 
important place in the Fox Photoplay Institute training 
and Mr. Rothacker’s place on the Advisory Council makes 
this part of the course especially valuable to students who 
wish to specialize in this branch of the work. 



Hope Hampton 



J. E. D. Meador * 


5 
















FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 





Some of Our Film Friends 


T HE time was August, 1910. The place, the Monarch Theatre, 
Toronto, admission Five Cents! It was a dull, hot afternoon. The 
cool darkness of the motion picture theatre seemed inviting. 
Charles Donald Fox, then a special writer on the Toronto World , had 
stopped in the theatre, not so much to find entertainment as to rest and 
think over the feature article he was preparing. 

But concentration was impossible. Before him on the screen, a bit 
of exquisite comedy was being enacted. Crude as it might seem now to 
our sophisticated eyes, for its day, it was a rare bit of art. Especially 
remarkable was the work of a young girl, almost a child, who played the 
leading role. 

The reporter forgot his big story. For a new idea had been conceived. 
, _ ,, „ 7 _ . Several thousand people would probably see that picture. They would, 

Charles Donald r ox and Connne i i i • i • 1 ’i • i 1171 

Griffith, Vitagraph star no doubt, be interested in the unnamed actress just as he was. Why 

not get an interview with her? He could write a splendid feature article 
on “How It Feels to Act in Moving Pictures.” 

The article was written, one of the first non-technical articles that ever appeared about motion 
pictures. And to Charles Donald Fox, it meant more than a series of very interesting feature stories. 
For he was one of the first to recognize the possibilities of that new form of entertainment, the 
motion picture. 

His interest in the subject grew so that in 1911, he opened the Palace Theatre in Newark, New 
Jersey. But Charles Donald Fox was a born writer. Great as was his interest in motion pictures, 
he could not resist the lure of the pen. After a while he sold the theatre and went back to journal¬ 
ism, but this time he devoted his efforts to motion picture topics. Thus be became one of the pioneer 
photoplay journalists. 

As the industry expanded, and its offspring, the motion picture publications grew to import¬ 
ance, Mr. Fox’s interests grew 
accordingly. He had lived 
through the infancy of the in¬ 
dustry, passed through its 
first great era of development 
along with the pioneer actors, 
directors and producers. He 
was part of the motion pic¬ 
ture world, his friends were 
motion picture people, their 
problems were his problems, 
their triumphs his triumphs. 

His wide acquaintance with 
the film folk and his compre¬ 
hensive knowledge of every 
branch of the industry made 
possible “Who’s Who on the 
Screen , ” the first authorita¬ 
tive book about the personnel 
of the industry. Then his 
series of “ Movie Mirror 
Books ” soon followed, as well 
as “Life Portraits of Famous 

Film Folks. ” Charles Donald Fox and Bert Lytell, Metro star 


6 













FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 





But Mr. Fox was growing restless. 
Film journalism did not satisfy him. 
He accepted the appointment as editor 
of “Opportunities in the Motion Pic¬ 
ture Industry ” and did considerable 
constructive work in supervising the 
writing of the only motion picture 
literature that has the unqualified en¬ 
dorsement of every person prominent 
in the cinema world. His research 
work during this period only helped 
to strengthen his convictions in regard 
to the great need of an institution 
devoted exclusively to motion picture 
education. 

Although he had conceived this 
idea years before, it was not until he 
finished his editorial work for the 
Photoplay Research Society that he 
mentioned it to his associates and 
friends. By that time, his course of 
instruction in photoplay writing was 
completely outlined. 

After the idea was launched, there 
was a vast amount of work to be 
done. The advice and assistance of 
the greatest film authorities was anx¬ 
iously sought and eagerly given. The 
course was written and perfected. A 
faculty was organized, the Advisory 

Council 


Charles Donald Fox and Lillian Gish 
discussing manuscript on grounds of 
Griffith Studios, Mamaroneck, N. Y. 


Charles Donald Fox and Al E. Christie at Christie Studios, Hollywood, California 

formed, 

all with the eager co-operation of film leaders. The Fox Photoplay 
Institute is a young organization, a new idea. But it is enthusias¬ 
tically supported by the great film leaders. It is teaching a new pro¬ 
fession, but it includes all the principles that have been evolved in 
the short life of the subject it teaches. 

In the older professions, law, medicine, engineering, a comprehen¬ 
sive education is required before the beginner is allowed to practice. 

While it is just as important that a photodramatist learn the laws 
of dramatic construction and the technique of the photoplay as it is 
that a doctor study anatomy or an architect understand drafting, the 
photoplay writer has the advantage of a much briefer course of in¬ 
struction. 

And, therefore, the Fox Photoplay Institute offers you its courses of 
study with the feeling they are as complete and comprehensive as 
it is possible for them to be — that the founder, Charles Donald Fox, 
and the supporters of the institute are fully qualified by their exper¬ 
ience to give the best motion picture training that can be procured in 
this day and age — and that every student who enrolls is given a close 
connection with the moving picture industry by his relation with his 
teachers. 


7 














FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 


“Please Tell Me A Story” 


The 
Greatest 
Achievement 
of the Story- 
Teller's 
Art 


“ The Story 
Means More 
Than Ever 
Before” 


‘TVLEASE tell me a story” is a craving as old as the human race. From the 
ancient minstrel to the modern writer of fiction, the successful teller of 
tales has always had the ear of the king and the applause of the people. 

The clever story-teller carries a fascinated audience away on wings of fancy to 
scenes of adventure—love—intrigue—daring. 

But great as was the entertainment provided by the story-teller of old and his 
successors, the wandering minstrel, the playwright and the novelist, it remained for 
the development of a new industry to supplant the old story-tellers in the hearts 
of the people. Today the age-old craving, “Tell me a story” is greater than ever 
and the creations of the modern story-teller reach all types and all classes of people. 
For with the birth of the moving picture industry, there developed what was des¬ 
tined to be the greatest achievement of the story-teller’s art. 

In the pioneer days, the story-teller was not accounted of very great import¬ 
ance to the industry. Crude narratives were filmed, the directors very often 
making up the stories as they worked. But when the motion picture ceased to be 
a curiosity and became a very popular form of entertainment, the audiences de¬ 
manded stories with entertainment value. And the producers were confronted 
with a very serious problem. All possible sources of photoplay material were 
explored. But the demand grew so great that soon it was all out of proportion 
to the supply. And today the problem is more acute than ever before. 

The public has been educated by the great motion picture masterpieces that 
have been produced. It demands a continuous supply of good material. The 
producers have realized that the play is the foundation of the motion picture, and 
not just incidental to the combination of fine acting, artistic settings and logical 
atmosphere. 

Samuel Goldwyn of the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation has been untiring in his 
quest for fresh material. “Today the story means more than ever before,” says 
Mr. Goldwyn. “Tomorrow it will mean even more than today.” 

There was an era in the development of motion pictures when it was thought 
that lavish extravagance in producing, luxurious surroundings, rich trappings 
would hide the weakness of the naked story. But the public would not be fooled, 
and today the tendency is toward simpler more tasteful surroundings and pro¬ 
ductions that are rich in dramatic value. Fine settings are all material things, 
interiors that can be constructed, palaces that can be erected, fabrics and jewels 
and precious metals that can be bought with money in the marketplaces. But 
plays are a more ephemeral stuff; they must be created! 

The producers want plots more than they want anything else in the world. 
Film Fun Magazine sums up the situation in these words: 


“Another prophecy has been fulfilled. A dearth of scenarios is hamper¬ 
ing the industry very seriously. The matter is well worth considera¬ 
tion by all who aspire some time to write the great play. Fame 
and fortune await the writer who will submit acceptable ideas 
for photoplays. ” 

Screen Stars The stars are seriously hampered in their work by the lack of strong, dramatic 

Need Better plays. How often have you come from a motion picture theatre wailing, “I think 
Plays he > s a 

fine actor, but oh! why doesn’t he appear in a strong play?” 

There is very little opportunity to display dramatic genius in the sort of film 
plays that producers and stars are forced to accept because they cannot get better 


8 













FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



material. There could be no clearer proof of this than the following review which 
appeared in The Chicago Tribune (March 14, 1922) when Charles Ray’s play, 
“The Barnstormer” was exhibited: 

“Charlie Ray can afford to put out just one picture like “The Barnstormer”— 
and he’s done it. What’s the matter with the picture? Why it’s absurd. It’s 
stupid. It gives you neither tear, smile, nor thrill for your money. It has just one 
asset and that is the name of Charles Ray. That one asset means nothing, it 
seems, when the gem is set in the brass of a poor production. ” 

Anyone who is familiar with Mr. Ray’s previous work will realize that he is the 
victim of the situation. Charles Ray has been noted, not only for his clever 
acting, but for the calibre of his pictures. Simple, well told tales, they have been 
for the most part, wholesome stories of American life. Who can supply Charles 
Ray with the kind of photoplays that will give him an opportunity to display his 
rare talent? 

Film luminaries are deserting motion pictures for the speaking stage just 
because they cannot get suitable vehicles. When Lionel Barrymore was in Chicago 
with “The Claw,” Mr. Fox was talking to the actor about his desertion of the 
screen. 

“I’d like to continue my work in the studios,” said Mr. Barrymore, “but I 
cannot because I can’t get the stories.” 

There is no such problem on the speaking stage. In comparison with the 
number of moving picture plays produced each year, the number of stage successes 
are so few that producers never suffer for lack of material. Many popular legiti¬ 
mate dramas have been re-written for the screen. Some of them failed utterly as 
motion pictures. The witty dialogue, the emotional lines that help a play over its 
weak spots cannot be translated to action unless they represent action essential 
to the plot, and moving picture producers have found the stage not a very fertile 
field. Great plays of the past have been re-written for the screen, and the new 
plays that are produced—even if every one of them could be re-written as success¬ 
ful photoplay materiah—are but a tiny drop in a huge bucket. 

Many good photoplays have been developed from popular novels. But today 
the novel is a moribund source of photoplay material. As in the case of the stage 
play, most novels which contained producable plots have been used. And the 
public constantly demands new ideas. 

Ernest Traxler, when Production Manager of the Universal Film Company, 
said: 

“The companies want stories. They do not want them from books and 
magazines and plays that have to be changed, worked over and 
twisted around before they can be screened. They do not want them 
from staff authors who must turn out plots as a butcher does sau¬ 
sages. They want screen stories written for the screen. ” 

And the Los Angeles Times adds: 

“The plight of the movies is in the lack of stories. They have used 
up all the good stories that have ever been written. And good new 
stories are not coming in fast enough to keep up with the furious 
pace of the filmers. It is appalling the pace they go. We wish we knew 
a way to help the movies in their plight but it is a problem too deep 
for the ordinary mind. ” 


Why 

Lionel 

Barrymore 

Deserted 

Motion 

Pictures 


New 

Material 

Is 

Wanted 


Consider then the vast store of photoplays that are needed to meet the age old 
craving, “Tell me a story,” which translated into twentieth century colloquial 
phrasing is “Let’s go to the movies,” 


9 












FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



No 
Story 
Problem In 
the Old Days 


Writer 

More 

Important 

Every 

Day 


One 
Million 
People 
A Night! 


More Stories Needed Every Year 

I N the early days when pictures that “moved” were a new sensation, there was 
no story problem. Wild West tales, Indian massacres and cowboys were un¬ 
failingly popular. The crook reformed by the vision of his old mother, the 
crabby miser whose heart was melted by the touch of a baby hand, the snobbish 
society queen who fell in love with a poor but noble farmer were seen on the screen 
over and over again. But after a few years, the public tired of this repetition. 
Feature pictures were created, and with their birth the popularity of moving 
pictures increased with a rapidity that was astounding. Gradually the public was 
educated to the motion picture drama. 

In the years that have intervened, thousands and thousands of screen dramas 
have been produced. And a vast amount of story material has been used up. 
Consider then the tremendous amount of material that will be demanded in the 
y^ears to come in view of the ever-increasing popularity of motion pictures. 

It is not difficult to appreciate the growing importance of the writer in the manu¬ 
facture of motion pictures. He is the hub of the wheel of that industry. His message, 
often more powerful than the sermons that are preached, or the lectures that are 
spoken, is carried to hundreds of thousands of people every night. Without his 
creation, the art of the actors, the work of the director, the beauty of the pictures 
created by the studio artists and artisans would be futile. Their work is entirely 
dependent upon his. Without him they could not exist. 

Yet scarcely two decades ago there was no such person as the Photodramatist. 
Those who have succeeded in the work during the years that have passed since the 
birth of the motion picture rubbed no magic lamp. No one guided their pens as 
they transferred their creations to paper. 

Those pioneer writers did not guess their own importance. But they had 
imagination and they had the vision to foresee the future of the motion picture 
industry. They labored day and night that the second generation of photoplay 
writers might have handed to them the heritage of a splendid profession. 

In the infancy of the motion picture industry, the writer was unrecognized, 
it is true. But so was the actor. Nameless persons working under nameless directors 
appeared in plays by nameless authors. But soon public demand changed this 
condition. People wanted to know who the pretty curly haired actress or the broad 
shouldered hero was. Soon the director’s name was announced also. But the 
public demanded something more. What author had written that pretty rustic 
idyl, and who had conceived the plot of that screaming farce, and when would 
they be able to see another play by the author of that thrilling drama? 

Today every feature picture bears the name of the author. It is announced 
in the advertisements, mentioned in the reviews. People choose a play because a 
certain author wrote the story just as they read a book because it is the work of a 
favorite novelist. The successful photodramatist ranks with the successful novelist, 
and the successful playwright. But his field is broader than theirs for there is a 
greater demand for his work. 

A book is considered phenomenally successful if half a million copies are printed. 
Hardly more than 500,000 people witness the most famous of the spoken dramas. 
But a million watch a big feature picture every night of its normal career. 

One million people a night! There is no need to question further the importance 
of the photodramatist. But remember this, if you decide to become a photodrama¬ 
tist, and write just one successful scenario — your idea, the creation of your brain, 
will be witnessed by one million people in a single night. 

Surely that is a goal worth striving for! 


10 











FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



The Studios Want Your Ideas 

T HE camera speaks with a tongue that is universal. The Frenchman and the 
Egyptian, the Greek and the American, the Jap and the Turk and the 
Russian can enjoy the same moving picture drama. 

Motion pictures are the popular pastime in every corner of the globe. An 
Argentine ranchman, an Eskimo trapper, a silk merchant of China, a French 
farmer, all may view the same photoplay at the same time. Small wonder that in a 
few short years the making of motion pictures has come to be the world’s fifth 
largest industry. 

In the United States alone, ten million people attend the motion pictures 
nightly. Twenty-two thousand motion picture theatres are being operated in this 
country. Many of them change their programs every day. 

Stories are to the film industry what raw iron is to the steel manufacturers. 
It is the raw material from which the finished product is wrought. The producers 
must have stories. They must be constantly on the look-out for new ideas. 

Possibly you have an idea for a good story in your mind right now. Jot it down 
so that you cannot forget it. This idea may be worth a great deal of money to you 
some day. You will probably ask the question all amateurs ask, “But there are 
so many stories being written and submitted every day. What chance will my 
story have when there is so much competition?” 

Yes, there are a great many people trying to write scenarios and sending their 
ideas to the studios. But very, very few of these are worth a second thought. 
Often they contain the germ of a good plot, but only the creator of that germ could 
build a strong plot out of such frail material. The studios do not want vague ideas. 
They are looking for complete stories. 

Moreover, there is the chance that your story might be just a little better. 
Competition in art is not like competition in business. There is no such thing as 
equality. A number of stories might be suitable, but there is always some that are 
better than others, and always one that is best. So avid is each producer in his 
search for the best story that he employs a huge scenario department whose sole 
business it is to read and judge the stories that are submitted. It is true that most 
of the stories are rejected. The producers know that most of the manuscripts will 
be hopeless, but they need material so badly that they pay out thousands of dollars 
annually to maintain these great staffs of readers, because among a hundred stories 
submitted, there may be one that is good. 

And you can be sure that any manuscript that might contain producable 
material is read and re-read and judged very carefully before it is returned to the 
author with the little slip “Not available” attached to it. 

There are bitter writers who think their ideas are stolen by the studios. This 
idea was rather common some years ago; there are still some people who believe it. 
It is entirely erroneous. A studio is abig business organization. It could not jeopard¬ 
ize its reputation by such petty thievery as that. The sum paid for a story is small 
when compared with the loss of prestige that would result from such a practice. 

The writer need have no such fear in submitting ideas to the studios. The 
studios want your ideas, but they will not steal them. They will pay for them, and 
pay what they are worth on the market. 

A new writer is welcomed to the exclusive profession of photodramatist. 
Great as are the opportunities in this profession, there are probably less than 
five hundred regularly paid people writing for the screen today. 

Think of it! Less than five hundred people supplying a commodity that is 
demanded nightly by millions of people! 

11 


World’s 

Fifth 

Largest 

Industry 


Producers 

Want 

Complete 

Stories 


Studios 
Do Not 
Steal 
Ideas 












FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 




Some of the 4.0,000 people struggling for admittance to the Tivoli Theatre, 
Chicago, on opening night 


/ T'HE moving picture scenarios of tomorrow will come 
from the people — even now they are coming from the 
people—not from successful novelists or short story writers, 
not from the staffs employed by the studios. 

In every person in this crowd there is a story! It may 
be his own story or the story of his friend. It may be his 
brother’s or his mother’s. It may only be a fabrication, a 
day dream. But it is scenario material. It can be developed 
and brought out by the correct training in technique and 
dramatic construction. 

This is the opinion of all screen authorities. 


12 
























FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



You Can Do as Others Have Done 

I F, a few years ago, you had been told that a young woman with practically no 
literary training was being paid $50,000 a year to write motion picture stories, 
you would have laughed. But that is what Miss Frances Marion has earned in 
a year writing stories for Mary Pickford. 

Mrs. Clara Beranger three years ago was a novice. Today her reported earnings 
are $75,000 a year. 

C. Gardner Sullivan, once a plow boy on his father’s farm, now head of the 
scenario department of the Thomas H. Ince Studios, enjoys a reputed salary of 
more than $100,000 a year. 

These are, perhaps, spectacular examples. But there are men and women who 
are earning upwards of $10,000 a year as photodramatists who have had no exper¬ 
ience as writers of fiction. Few of the names signed to the manuscripts that are 
accepted by the studios are names of well known authors. 

It has been definitely proved that the fiction writer does not make a successful 
screen author. Way back in the days when the need for stories was first felt, the 
producers turned to well-known authors for screen stories. Lured by tremendous 
financial inducements, the successful author revised his printed books and stories 
for the screen and also tried to produce some new screen fiction. But surprise and 
disappointment awaited the author and the producer who had lured him to the 
screen. For the successful author failed as a photodramatist. Men and women who 
had produced scores of successful magazine stories, prolific writers of popular fiction, 
were unable to turn out producable scenarios. 

Inexperienced men and women succeeded with this new form of literature 
where men and women endowed with marked literary ability failed. And producers 
soon discovered the reason. For many authors had succeeded by their skill in 
handling words and creating impressions by careful phrasing even when their plots 
were not constructed with strength. An author’s “style” is responsible for his 
success as much as his stories. Many of these authors were letter-perfect in the 
technique of language, but they lacked the essential knowledge of dramatic con¬ 
struction that is necessary to a strong photoplay plot. 

Producers are, therefore, looking elsewhere for scenarios. Many persons 
who are not aware of their own ability are endowed with creative talent which, if 
developed, would bring them success in the writing of screen literature. 

Marshall Neilan, famous producer and director, has said: “The American 
business man, his wife, his daughter, his stenographer and his clerk ought to write 
the best moving picture stories in the world.” 

And Mr. Neilan is right. For in many apparently prosaic people there is a 
spark of the eternal fire. But humans are so sensitive about the inner things that 
most of us would rather repress the creative instinct than breathe our dreams to 
any one. The business man who seems so oblivious to romance might write the 
most delicately beautiful story in all the world. The quiet little clerk might spin a 
tale of wild adventure. The stenographer bending over her keyboard, the mechanic 
tinkering with his motor, the policeman walking his beat, the housewife busy 
with mops and brooms and babies, the seamstress with her pins and patterns, the 
banker in his limousine, the conductor in the street car, the farmer in the field and 
the miner in the mountains, every one whose dreams lead them from every day 
tasks to the fields of romance, is capable of producing screen stories. The creative 
talent must be cultivated and strengthened, the principles of plot construction 
must be learned and the technical points must be acquired. 


$50,000 
A Year 
Writing 
Scenarios 


Why the 
Eminent 
Author 
Failed 


M ar shall 
Neilan s 
Opinion 


13 
















FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



Who is Qualified to Write 
Photoplays? 

HE Chicago Daily News recently awarded $30,000 in prizes to winners 
of its great scenario contest. The first prize of $10,000 was awarded 
to a woman who had never written a scenario or sold a story in her life, 
thirty-one prize winners in this contest, thirty were amateurs. The 
' Daily News comments: “Although the judges were for the most part 
picture authorities and trained technicians, the prizes have gone 
in their entirety to amateurs. Professional writers, of whom there were 
ds entered, fell far behind in the race. Delay in reaching a decision 
n due to the excellence of many of the manuscripts — ” 

What more powerful proof could there be of the amateur’s opportunity 
in this field? Experienced writers competed but experienced writers did not 
win the prizes, because the winning stories were real tales of real people, 
and it did not take erudition nor the gift of words to present real ideas to 
the most discriminating of judges. 

Contests such as this are being launched continually by producers and 
by publications collaborating with producers in their search for better film 
stories. They are not merely contests. They are quests. Once discovered, 
latent ability can be cultivated and contestants who show ability — even 
if they have not won prizes — can be trained in the technique of the photo¬ 
play so that they will be able to produce suitable stories for an eager and 
waiting industry. 

The producers recognize that in the great mass of the people there is 
much latent ability that if awakened and nurtured could supply them with 
plenty of original, producable material. “In every man, woman and child,” says D. W. Griffith, 
“there is a good motion picture scenario. If they will only get it out of them, they will do more 
for the industry than any of us.” 

If you are a bit doubtful as to your own ability, think over these words of Mr. Griffith’s, “Every 
man, woman and child — ” In your conscious mind, you might not be able to visualize the story 
now but somewhere in the subconscious regions, it is there. You can only “get it out” if )mu develop 
your creative talent and dramatic perception. 

But let the authorities of the film world answer that question which is undoubtedly uppermost in 
your mind — “Who is qualified to write motion picture scenarios? Am I?” 

Do you remember the exquisite pathos and the joyous comedy of “ Humoresque ” ? Frank Borzage, 
who directed that masterpiece, says: “The big stories of tomorrow will come from the people. Their 
life stories are the stories the producers want, and the sooner these stories are given to the studios, 
the nearer we will be to perfection in the art of making motion pictures.” 

People often write to Lillian Gish and ask the advise of that winsome star as to what sort of 
stories to write. Miss Gish has been associated with the industry since the one-reel days and she is 
accounted one of the finest emotional actresses on the screen. Miss Gish’s advise to every one who 
contemplates a career as a photodramatist is: 

“Write the story that is nearest your heart. Some of the unwritten stories of every day life 
would make the most romantic and the most beautiful film plays ever produced.” 

As popular taste becomes cultivated to the greater things, we are growing away from the 
inclination toward the wild and lurid moving picture story, the sensational plots that only a frenzied 



Frank Borzage 





\y 


m. 


Mae Murray 


Of the 

Chicago 

moving 

almost 

hundrei 

has bee 


14 

















FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 


imagination is capable of creating. The tendency today is toward the finer, simpler story, the type 
of story that any wholesome mind can produce. 

As Edward Earle, the famous “O. Henry man of the movies” puts it: “Clean, clever plays are 
in demand. Outsiders cannot realize how badly we need them. There is every opportunity for 
young boys and old men, girls and mature women, all to achieve success as screen writers if they can 
only supply the plots. And why can’t they? Aren’t the things that are happening in their lives every 
day the very things we are looking for?” 

In the opinion of producers and actors, there are thousands of people who could make a place for 
themselves in the industry. For the first time in the history of motion pictures they are turning to 
the audience for assistance, 


Haven’t you often walked out of a theatre with these words in your mouth — “Why, I could 
have written as good a story as that?” Often when you are in a theatre, doesn’t some trivial inci¬ 
dent suggest a plot to you, a stronger drama that might have been built around the same idea? 


“Most of the old plays and stories have been used. New material is needed. Where will we 
get it? We must ask the audience to help us. I am sure I could find material for fifty good plots in 
every normal audience,” says Percy Marmont. 

Such optimistic statements do not mean that any one could sit down and write a moving picture 
scenario even though he has lived through or witnessed a great drama in real life. The film author¬ 
ities are confident that many men and women possess the ability to create great screen dramas, but 
these film leaders know—through their experience in handling the many manuscripts that are sub¬ 
mitted to them — that creative ability alone cannot produce good film material. 



They constantly encourage alert, imaginative men and women to study 
the technique of photoplay construction just as they would study the tech¬ 
nique of color and composition if they were possessed of talent along artistic 
lines. Mae Murray gave this pungent advice to a young friend who asked the 
star whether it would be worth-while to study the principles of photoplay writ¬ 
ing: “If you think you can write stories that would be accepted by the studios, 
don’t waste a minute. First learn how to write the kind of scenarios that we 
are looking for. Then write and write and write, because you have more 
opportunity for success than in any other branch of photoplay work. ” 

And Louella O. Parsons, former Scenario Editor of the Essanay Company 
and well-known screen authority and writer, gives almost the same counsel: 
“Scenario writing is the most fascinating field of fiction. There is a bigger 
future for scenario writers than for writers in any other field. But you must 
have something to offer, in order to reap the rewards for your efforts. I am 

Edward Earle confident that the people—those who go to the movies regularly and see what 
producers want—have unique and brilliant ideas. But 
the vast majority do not know how to put these ideas into salable form. They 
must master technique and construction if they would succeed.” 

The people who know the film industry are putting their confidence in 
you. They give a broad and comprehensive answer to the question — “Who 
is qualified to write scenarios?” 

You may think they are overconfident, that their optimism is exaggerated. 

In asking you to consider these statements in choosing your career, we want 
you to remember that they are not idle boasts of our organization but state¬ 
ments of men and women who know the industry best and understand the 
situation thoroughly! 

They are interested in seeking out new creative talent because they 
realize only too well that their industry needs an infiltration of new 

ideas. Percy Marmont 



15 















FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



You Know Stories Like These 

H ERE are the themes of six successful photoplays. Analyze them. Nothing astounding or 
original about the ideas, you might say. No, nothing astounding, but they are the greatest and 
the commonest themes in all human existence. 

If these things had happened to your relatives or your neighbors, would you have recognized their 
fiction value? 



THE OLD NEST ( Goldwyn ) 

When chddren grow up, oftentimes they forsake the 
old nest and forget the mother who cared for them. Peep 
into almost any home and you will find a story like this. 
It might have happened in your own home. 

This beautiful story will never grow old. It can be 
written from many different angles with different local 
color and different sub-situations and development. 
How would you develop a story founded on this theme? 



MISS LULU BETT ( Paramount ) 

Here is the story of a drab, pathetic old maid who was 
household drudge for a vain, self-centered married sister. 
But there was romance in the heart of Miss Lulu Bett and 
her adventure came at last. 

This story seems to contain a wealth of good plot 
material. 

But a similar story might have been written about 
the spinster next door to you. There’s the richest fund of 
material in the world right at your doorstep if you 
could only recognize it. That is what the Fox Plan 
teaches you to do! 



TWO MINUTES TO GO (First National ) 

About football—and a boy who was working his way 
through college—and a girl who wasn’t a snob. Not very 
heavy or a very complicated plot, but so real that it 
might have happened to anyone in your class. There is 
fun and action in this wholesome comedy-drama of 
college life, founded on the simplest love story. You 
have but to review the memories of your schooldays to 
know hundreds of stories as good as this one and all 
sorts of amusing incidents that could be blended into 
virile, youthful drama. 

16 















PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 


Could You Develop Them Into Photoplays? 

T HE homely events that occur in your life and your neighbor’s are the germs of great photo¬ 
dramas. You can recognize the drama in the house next door! Or even on your own doorstep! 
The function of the Fox Plot Research Laboratory is to help you recognize the dramatic 
value of the plot germs all around you, and to teach you how to develop them into strong stories 
especially fitted for photoplay production. 




THE CONQUERING POWER {Metro) 

Eugenie Grandet transplanted to a 1922 home in an 
American town might live through the same ordeals. It 
is quite natural that the daughter of a hard, old miser 
should fall in love with a gay, young beaux from Paris. 
Faithful in the face of parental disapproval, unmindful of 
the other suitors who came to beg her hand, Eugenie 
waited until her own true love returned to her. 

Could you find a simpler story than this—or a greater? 
There might be a Eugenie Grandet on the very street you 
live. Why couldn’t you build a gripping photodrama 
from her experience? 



PEGGY PUTS IT OVER ( Vitagraph) 

Surely there’s a Peggy in your community, in your 
own family, perhaps. You know some vivacious, self- 
confident girl whose instinctive knowledge of human 
nature enables her to sway older, wiser people and carry 
out her own wishes with an easy grace. And sometimes 
girls like Peggy do big, astounding things, put over deals 
that practical business men cannot swing. Peggy’s 
pranks make the most delightful stories, the kind that the 
public, the stars and the producers are clamoring for. 

Why can’t you write a clever Peggy-story? 



STAR DUST (First National) 

The story of woman’s fight for freedom and her 
struggle against environment. This drama is happening 
every day, in every city and village and hamlet all over 
the world. Perhaps you know some woman who dared to 
defy convention and leave the husband she could not love. 
But did you ever think of her problem as photoplay 
material ? 

Your heroine might do just the opposite of what 
Lily Becker did. You might solve her problem in an 
entirely different way. But that depends upon your 
creative imagination and your knowledge of plot con¬ 
struction. 



















FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



Where Stories 
Can Be Found 


Learn to Look 
for Material 
Everywhere 


Good Plot 
Material In 
Your Own Life 


Laboratory 
Work Stimu¬ 
lates Your Cre¬ 
ative Imagina¬ 
tion 


A Laboratory of Ideas 

H AVE you ever stopped a few minutes at a gathering place and listened to 
the tales the old idlers were telling? Have you ever listened with intense 
interest, to the group of old cronies gathered around the pump or postoffice 
steps? Haven’t you gossiped with some ancient dame over tea cups and knitting 
just for the privilege of hearing her delightful old fashioned scandal? Perhaps 
there is an old veteran on the street corner who can tell about the glorious days of 
’63. Your post office oracle may be a venerable sea captain whose tales are rich 
with the breath of adventure. Or it may be some garrulous foreigner who gives an 
air of mystery to highly colored tales of other lands. 

Confess! You do frequent these places, make friends with these queer “charac¬ 
ters” and delight in their strange narrations. Every born story-teller enjoys listening 
to these tales. That is why you often find successful novelists and playwrights as 
well as photoplaywrights seeking out queer foreign restaurants in the ghetto, mak¬ 
ing friends with old bridge tenders and sea captains, fishermen, and laborers. For 
here is the greatest fund of story material in the world. 

Perhaps you do not realize how these tales have stimulated your creative 
imagination. That is because you lacked knowledge. The Fox Plot Research 
Laboratory develops your sense of dramatic perception and teaches you to recog¬ 
nize the plot material that is about you everywhere. You wdl be trained to look 
for the dramatic value in a story. The tales that are told you will take on a new 
meaning. You will listen with a critical ear. You will analyze and classify the 
incidents and you will be able to judge their value as scenario material. You will 
be able to separate the chaff of dullness and mediocrity from the wheat of orig¬ 
inality and heart interest. 

You will find dramatic situations wherever you look. Your day dreams and 
your “castles in Spain,” your relations with friends and relatives will be studied 
from a new angle. Your eyes will constantly see and your heart feel, the romantic, 
the tragic and the humorous aspects of little events and petty struggles. 

While the Fox Plot Research Laboratory encourages fanciful thought (for this 
is the basis of all fiction) it is in itself an intensely practical plan. It teaches you 
to analyze the events that take place in your life so you may be able to construct 
plots around them with the utmost skill. It teaches how to add the high-light of 
heart interest to a drab theme and how to give action and punch to a dull incident. 

To the person of creative imagination, the Plot Research Laboratory will be, 
perhaps, the most interesting part of the course. The Laboratory work is a 
general education in itself. In your search for photoplay plots, you include the 
history of the elemental struggles of mankind that are the basis of all drama. 
History, legend, art and literature in their relation to plot material, are all given 
considerable attention in this laboratory training. 

If you possess imagination and creative talent is slumbering within you, latent 
ideas can be drawn out and idle dreams can be developed. The Fox Plot Research 
Laboratory gives you a practical method of discovering plot material and an effic¬ 
ient system of analyzing and cataloging that material for future use so that none 
will be wasted. In fact, the Plot Research Laboratory helps yon find photoplay 
themes that are useful and producable. It teaches economy of thought, and its 
practical method for storing ideas insures you against the waste of creative 
thought. It is the only Plot Research method that has ever been conceived. There 
is no other method of training that includes any such system. 

If you feel you have ability and if you are keen enough to recognize your own 
needs, we are eager to welcome you as our student. 

18 











Literary Ability Not Necessary 

T HE ample, blue-ginghamed, somewhat disheveled maid moved with a 
yielding heaviness about the table preparing it for breakfast. The misty 
sunlight of early May shone through the room, infusing its dull significance 
with a delicate warmth, a subdued reflection of the green and gold morning that 
enveloped the little house.” 

This paragraph opens T. Walter Gilkyson’s story “Spoken In Jest” in the 
Atlantic Monthly. And it is followed by some two hundred and fifty words of 
description, all telling that Rose Canby and her husband, John, enter the dining 
room and prepare to sit down at the breakfast table. 

Translated to scenario language, this fact would be worded somewhat as 
follows: “Rose Canby enters carrying a plate of biscuits. A moment later John 
bustles in and sits down opposite her at the table.” 

Nothing could illustrate more clearly the difference between the short story 
and the scenario, nor the comparative simplicity of the screen manuscript. While 
the author of the short story or novel must use a great amount of time and energy 
endeavoring to create an impression through the sound of his word combinations, 
the photodramatist states facts in the fewest words possible. He needs no literary 
ability. 

Truly there is a fine swing to Mr. Gilkyson’s opening sentences. But there are 
not many writers who have the art to combine words in such beautiful, expressive 
phrases. There are many of us who are imaginative, constructive, creative and 
romantic, but we cannot write fiction because we do not possess words. Possibly 
you who are seeking a career as a photodramatist have tried to write fiction, but 
in spite of the clarity and originality of your ideas, you have not been able to 
express them in the most appropriate words. 

The quality of style in writing is to a great extent inherent. But it can be 
acquired with a broad education, comprehensive reading, years of work and study. 
Some people might even study for years without achieving the gift of expression. 
The majority of born story-tellers allow the creative instinct to go unsatisfied 
because they lack the gift of words. 

But the photodramatist does not need style in writing. If he can originate ideas 
or draw plot material from common sources and if he can develop dramatic photo¬ 
plays from such material he can achieve success without the gift of words. 

The producers do not want long, wordy stories. The synopsis of a feature scenario 
of average length is generally written in approximately five thousand words. 
Such a story in novel form — in terms of dramatic action the material in a strong 
feature photoplay is novel length—written in good style would have to be at least 
90,000 words. 

In actual physical work, the writing of a photoplay is essentially simpler than 
writing a novel or story. And there is a vastly greater number of people who could 
write photoplays because the people possessing creative imagination far outnumber 
the people who possess that elusive something called “literary style.” 

And naturally since the product is a simpler thing, the preparation is much 
simpler. While all writers of fiction must understand both dramatic construction 
and literary composition, the photodramatist need only be familiar with dramatic 
construction as applied to the photoplay. And that in brief, is exactly what the 
Fox Photoplay Institute teaches. 

In the pages that follow there is a detailed description of the Fox Plan of 
Photoplay Writing. The outline shows exactly what the course contains. No com¬ 
ment, critical or favorable, is given. You are the sole judge. 

19 


Scenarios 
Short and 
Simple 


Fine Writing 
Not Essential 


Producers 
Want Synopses 


Training Is 
Simple and 
Interesting 







i FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



Placing Your Scenarios In the Hands 

Producers 

H ALF way between the studios of California 
and the executive offices of New York, the 
Fox Photoplay Institute and its Placement 
Bureau is situated. Because of its central position 
where mail from every part of the country is received 
in minimum time, Chicago has been chosen as the 
home of this Institution to assure the best of service 
both to its students and to the studios it is serving. 

California is not, as many laymen think, the center 
of the film industry. California is the heart of the 
producing end of the industry but a large part of the 
business is transacted through the offices in New 
York, and the Fox Placement Bureau is in constant 
touch with the New York offices as well as the Cali¬ 
fornia studios. It receives information as to the needs 
of the producers. Its heads are thoroughly familiar with every phase of the market. 

Amateurs placing their scenarios independently often receive rejection slips because they have 
not submitted their stories to the right studios. They lose faith in their ability because they have not 
placed their manuscripts judiciously. With the assistance of a service such as the Fox Placement 
Bureau renders, the author encounters no such obstacles. An expert critic reads the manuscript and 
sees that it is submitted to the studio whose needs it is fulfilling. 

No scenario is sent out by the Placement Bureau unless its value has been judged by the Head of 
the Bureau. This is a measure of protection, for it assures our Placement Bureau clients that their 
manuscripts will be given the most careful consideration in studio reading departments. 

The Placement Bureau is an outgrowth of the Criticism Service. Frequently manuscripts sent 
in for criticism need no revision and are so excellent they are considered salable. Sometimes a student’s 
first scenario is found to be of selling quality or to fit some definite market demand. It is accordingly 
placed in the hands of the Placement Bureau and after it is retyped on special bond paper and bound 
in the distinctive Fox Binder, it is submitted to the studio for whose needs it is most appropriate. 

There is no fee for this service unless the story is sold. In that case you are informed immediately 
and check (less our io % sales commission) is forwarded to you without delay. 


of the 



Long Island City Studios 
Famous Player—Lasky Corporation 



Goldwyn Studios, Culver City, California 


20 














FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



Your Opportunity As An Industrial or 
Educational Film Writer 

Ur TpHE future of the industrial motion picture is 
just as great as the future of the screen drama or 
screen comedy. To the man or woman who has the 
vision to grasp the fact, the motion picture advertising 
business offers splendid opportunities. It is not over¬ 
crowded, and the reward for brilliant services is on a 
par with the reward for similarly brilliant service in 
any commercial field.” 

These are the words of Watterson R. Rothacker, 

President of the Rothacker Film Manufacturing Com¬ 
pany, and pioneer producer of industrial motion 
pictures. 

Writing scenarios for industrial motion pictures is 
one of the absorbingly interesting branches of motion 
picture work. It is a new and rapidly growing business 
and it offers untold opportunities to the alert man or woman who possesses both creative imagination 
and business ability. The industrial film is used to advertise and sell merchandise and to educate 
workers. 

It takes a certain amount of ingenuity to add the human element to a motion picture showing 
the process of manufacturing a carbon lamp, for instance, or to give a personal appeal to 1000 feet of 
film illustrating the production of a tire casing. And that is just why it is such interesting work for 
the man or woman who is clever, ingenious and imaginative. 

Educational films form another class of non-entertainment motion pictures that offer vast op¬ 
portunities to wide-awake scenarioists. Visual education is increasing daily in prestige and popu¬ 
larity. Not only in schools and colleges but in social centers and churches, the educational motion 
picture has proved its value. 

The Fox Plan of Photoplay Writing includes a very comprehensive supplement teaching industrial 
and educational film writing. It is not sold independent of the general photoplay course because the 
industrial or educational expert must have a sound knowledge of photoplay technique and the con¬ 
struction of scenarios. It is an elective course; that is, if you are interested solely in the writing of 
photoplays for entertainment purposes, you are not required to take it as part of your general training. 
But if you wish to specialize in this branch of the work, or if you merely wish to gain the added know¬ 
ledge, you may take this training, at no extra cost to you' 



Interior scene, Rothacker Studio, Chicago, III. 



Rothacker Film Manufacturing Company's Studio, Chicago, Illinois 


21 














FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



What Is An 
Idea? 


Imagination 
the Beginning 
of All Art 


Great Dramatic 
Material In 
Your Day 
Dreams 


You Must 
Know How to 
Assemble Your 
Ideas 


Getting the Most from Your Ideas 

ART represents the dreams of a race; a work of art is the dream of an indi- 
r\ vidual. One is apt to overlook this fact when contemplating a great 
painting. In an epic, it is hard to recognize an idle dream of a mortal 
author. And yet what is a great idea but the product of a dream? 

To the dreamer—the person who possesses the creative instinct—nothing is 
barren of ideas. A group of printed words, a fan, a piece of pottery, a casual 
incident, a trifling adventure, all are the germs of romance. Haven’t you often 
heard a phrase or sentence that awakened a chain of delightful thoughts? Haven’t 
you dreamt for hours over some trivial adventure? Hasn’t a face in a crowd 
often suggested a wonderful dream-story? And from the fragments of those idle 
fancies, haven’t you sometimes created a bit of fiction far more intriguing than 
any you had ever heard or read or seen acted? But the dream, delightful as it was 
could not satisfy you. It was too splendid a thing to be allowed to fade and die. 
And you tried to communicate it to some one else, to put it down on paper. 

Some call it the creative instinct, some call it imagination. It is the beginning 
of all art. Andre Tridon in his great book on psychoanalysis says that dream 
matter becomes the warp and woof of a novel or play in which the personal elements 
of the author’s unconscious self become absorbed. If you do not dream, you do 
not possess the creative instinct. No amount of training would make you a success¬ 
ful photodramatist. 

But if you are constantly creating dream-dramas, you possess wonderful 
ability. You are constantly surrounded by ideas. Every outward incident in the 
life of your friends and neighbors, every one of your own small adventures, pro¬ 
duces in you a reaction which may be the germ of a great idea. 

You do not recognize these reactions as ideas now. That is because your sense 
of dramatic perception is untrained. You might be compared to a man who 
walks through the apple orchard in springtime, enjoying the beauty of the apple 
trees in full bloom. He sees a wonderful picture before him; the exquisite coloring 
of the delicate blossoms delights him. But he does not realize the full meaning 
of what he sees. To the botanist who walks through the same orchard, there is 
something greater in the picture than the beauty of the blossoms. He knows the 
importance of each pink petal, the function of each stamen and pistil. He sees the 
promise of the harvest when the trees will be burdened with the juicy fruit. 

You are enjoying your dreams now, but you do not realize the great amount 
of dramatic material that is stored in your active brain this minute. After 
you have been trained in photoplay construction, after the practical laboratory 
work has sharpened your sense of situation, you will be like the botanist who 
visualizes the orchard at harvest time. From apparently formless ideas, you 
will be able to construct dramatic plots. 

Your success as a photodramatist lies not only in your ability to create ideas 
but in your skill in constructing situations and plots around those ideas. In 
other words, you must know how to assemble your ideas correctly. 

These things can be learned by any person. They are technical and any 
one can acquire a technical education. Such training is very simple. It constantly 
exercises the ingenuity of the student and brings out latent ideas and conscious 
thoughts. 

Your ideas are as good as anyone’s, just as clever, just as worth-while. The 
only difference between you and the successful photodramatist is that he is trained 
to recognize the ideas that come to his mind and to build them into plot material, 
while your ideas are forgotten and lost forever. Haven’t you often read a story 


22 













or viewed a photoplay that expressed some idea that had long before occurred to 
you? Doubtless you were just a little bit annoyed to think that the other fellow 
got all the glory and the very substantial monetary reward for an idea that was 
similar to your idea, perhaps inferior. 

The Fox Plan of Photoplay Writing gives you the ability to recognize the big 
ideas when they come to you, to use them as plot material and to turn your dreams 
to tangible, concrete matter that will perpetuate your dreams and bring you suc¬ 
cess, perhaps, and fortune. 

But coming down to actual, cold business talk, you want to know what your 
opportunities for success really are. It is all very well to talk about self expression 
and satisfying the creative instinct, but you are anxious to know what this training 
means to you—in terms of actual money. 

Approximately $500 to #1500 are paid the scenarioist for one photoplay syn¬ 
opsis. Stories which may be adapted for one-reel photoplays seldom bring less 
than $150, and often more. The average five-reel photoplay brings its creator 
at least $500 for his work. These are very conservative figures. Your earnings 
as a photodramatist depend only on your ability. Three, four, or five plays 
a year will bring a very comfortable income. 

The great asset to the beginner starting out in this work is that he need 
not give up his whole time to photoplay writing. With the Fox plan, you can 
learn at home in leisure hours, and after you have completed the course, you can 
write at home whenever you desire. You can keep up your regular work until 
your success as a photodramatist is assured and your scenarios are producing a 
worth-while income. 

But you must remember that you cannot build a career for yourself as a photo¬ 
dramatist unless you found that career on a sound basis of knowledge. You must 
know how to express your ideas in the form that will find favor with the pro¬ 
ducers. Miss Mary O’Connor, editor and assistant to the Chief of the Editorial 
Department, Famous Players-Lasky West Coast Studios, comments: 

“We must have writers who consider scenario writing a craft, a life 
profession.... 

“To produce a worth while scenario, the author must have certain 
training and the man or woman who believes that he can hastily dash 
off an idea which comes to him suddenly and sell it to a motion picture 
producer for a very large sum of money is very much mistaken.. . . 

“Scenario building means thought, constructive plot building, screen 
action and the other elements which go to make up the successful 
photoplay. The people who stand the best chance of recognition for 
screen stories are trained writers.... 

“The field is big and broad for the properly trained writer who con¬ 
siders scenario writing as the dignified profession which it has grown 
to be.” 

Analyze your attitude toward this step you contemplate taking before you 
make a definite decision. For you must appreciate the dignity of the profession 
with which you are allying yourself by enrollment in this institution, and you must 
consider photoplay writing as a serious career, not as a trivial avocation. 

In writing for the screen, in bringing your dreams to life, you are not only 
bringing yourself the satisfaction of creation and laying the foundation for a 
splendid future, but you are also unconsciously benefitting this great industry. 
For by your efforts, you may help to bring the screen art to a higher artistic level. 


What Can I 
Earn? 


Make It 
Your Life 
Work 


Lay the 
Foundation 
for a 
Splendid 
Future 


23 











FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 




HOLLYWOOD! 

T HE motion picture Mecca. It is here that your plays are produced, your ideas brought to 
life. The 12,000 workers that represent the motion picture population of Hollywood are but 
one unit of this great industry. Their work is dependent on yours. Without stories they cannot 
exist. 

The Foxr Photoplay Institute is working hand in hand w ith the studios. Its function is 
twofold. By serving the film industry, it serves you. 

The Fox Plan teaches scenario writing as prominent film leaders believe it should be taught. 
It develops trained writers from ineffectual amateurs. It teaches you to speak and write the 
language of the studios. It gives you the knowledge that will enable you to write the kind of 
scenarios the producers want in the form they want them to be written. It assists in furnishing 
the studios with a permanent source of film material. 

Through its Criticism Service, it helps you overcome those faults which would bar your 
scenarios from consideration in the studio reading departments. Through its Placement Bureau, 
it puts your scenarios into the hands of the producers whose demands they are meeting. And 
through its personal and friendly relation with film leaders, it establishes a strong link in the 
chain between you and the studios. 


24 





















FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



BOSTON 
BUFFALO 
C * «C AGO 
r 1NC1NN ATI 

ClfVfLANC 
0ALLAS 
DCNVto 
OE TOOIT 
KANSAS CITY 

tOSANGELES 
MiNNEAOOL IS 
NE ORLEANS 


V I TAG HAP II I 


nc. 


GENERAL Or^CES 
MU) FIFTH AVKNTK 


Nk'vYohk April 12th, 1922, 


LOUIS 

S-iU .AWC CITY 

San ratNcisco 


T OOOII TO 
ST JOMN N e 
w, NNlOr 6 


The opportunity that exists today for the 
photodramatist is probably as great as any that 
exists in any profession. Not only are there 
splendid chances to earn good sums by the writ¬ 
ing of photoplays, but there is the chance to¬ 
day to be taught the fundamentals of the profes¬ 
sion — something that did not exist when I made 
my star t. 



Screen Authorities Tell You of the Amateur Photodramatist’s Opportunity 

C. Graham Baker, Editor of the Scenario Department for the Vitagraph Company, has spent many years in 
motion picture work. His letter is of interest to everyone thinking of embracing the profession of Photodramatist. 
Mr. Baker prepared the scenario and continuity of Vitagraph’s great super-special “My Wild Irish Rose.” Arthur 
M. Brilant has had a long and highly successful career as a Photodramatist. He agrees with Mr. Baker in voicing 
his sentiments and tells how he had to start without any assistance whatever. Among Mr. Brilant’s screen suc¬ 
cesses may be listed such pictures as “Annable Lee,” “1 he Alibi,” “ The Lotus Man,” “Christopher and Columbus,” 
and “The Avenger.” 


25 







































FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 




A BOVE is illustrated some of the physical material of the Fox 
Course and Service. Though this illustration may convey to 
prospective students the scope of this course, mention should 
be made here of the true value of the Consulting Membership 
Certificate and what it means to the student. Once you are enrolled 
as a student of this Institution your Certificate entitles you to 
scenario criticism service and any advice you may seek, as well as 
the privilege of enjoying the use of the Placement Bureau, which 
is in itself a very important advantage in being a student of the 
Fox Photoplay Institute. 

fi) The Fox Plan Text Book records in clear, simple style, the 
fundamental principles of successful photoplay writing. Given the 
student in twelve highly constructive installments, all of which are 
bound in our specially patented loose leaf binder illustrated. 
(2) Character Analysis of 100 Prominent Motion Picture Stars, 


telling you just the kind of stories to write for each of them—and 
why! (3) Complete Scenario, Continuity and Record of Titles as 
used by the director, in filming Vitagraph’s super-feature “My 
Wild Irish Rose.” (4) Industrial and Educational Supplement, 
original with this Institution and very valuable and informative. 
(5) Photoplay Plot Research Laboratory, a brilliant idea and great 
aid to the Photodramatist, original with this Institution. (6) 
Post-Graduate Course Supplement, a detailed resume of the Fox 
Plan of Photoplay Writing, with special examination paper. (7) 
The Standard Photoplay Plot Chart, an invaluable work of reference 
absolutely essential to every one writing for the screen. A beauti¬ 
fully bound book thoroughly illustrated. (8) Facsimile of special 
binder used by the Placement Bureau in sending your stories to the 
studios under the Fox seal. (9) The Consulting Membership Certifi¬ 
cate, entitling you to all privileges students of this Institution enjoy. 


26 


















FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



The Fox Plan of Photoplay Writing 


General Outline 


T HE Pox Plan of Photoplay Writing is divided into seven Major Branches. These branches are 
closely related and interdependent. Each branch in itself is a complete service, but used in 
relation with the other branches, a comprehensive photoplay education is obtained. 

Through the Instruction LTmts and the Standard Photoplay Plot Chart, you get the theory of 
dramatic construction and photoplay writing; the Plot Research Laboratory work gives you actual 
practice. 

The Pox Photoplay Institute does not send you a mass of heterogeneous material all at once, 
nor are you left to work out your problems without assistance. You study each lesson individually. 
When you are sure that you understand it perfectly, you answer the examination questions and send 
them in for grading. Our system of grading papers is so efficiently arranged that you are always 
provided with material to work on. 

A Research Lime is sent with each Instruction Unit. There is a practical Requirement for each 
Research Unit. For instance, with Research Unit VII, “Literature as a Source of Plot Material,” 
the story of “Pandora’s Box” is related. The student is required to outline briefly a modern photo¬ 
drama based on this myth. This practical work stimulates your imagination, teaches you how to 
construct a photodrama, and illustrates in concrete form the many sources of plot material that are 
open to you. 

You keep an actual card file of plot material so that no material is wasted. Some of the ideas that 
you are required to work out while studying may prove the germs of salable photoplays. Every 
paper and file card is returned to you and you are advised to file it away for future reference. 

You are assisted by Mr. Fox, personally, and a thoroughly efficient staff who grade your papers 
and criticise your ideas. You are not retarded by the slower progress of other students — as in class 
work—nor are you required to work faster than you wish. 

T. he fact that you are constantly creating, while studying, makes the course intensely interesting. 
To one possessed of creative ability, these tests—and particularly the Research Unit Requirements— 
are absolutely fascinating. And the fact that we are constantly supervising your studies and examining 
the results, gives you the assurance of progress. 

This is the only practical photoplay instruction system. Read over the Outline of the Course 
very carefully. You will note it contains all the elements necessary to a complete working knowledge 
of photoplay writing. 


Branch A 

Comprising 12 Units of Instruction, and 12 Examinations. The 
Units may be placed in the beautiful Spanish Leather Keratol Im¬ 
proved Loose Leaf Binder and kept as a permanent reference work. 

Foreword 

A Message to Potential Photodramatists 
A History of the Motion Picture Industry 
Type Analysis of New Material Needed 

INSTRUCTION UNIT I 

A. How to Study Fox Plan 

General introductory talk on plan of course; training in analytical 
thought; use of reference system; making a card catalog. 

B. The Basic Idea 

Necessity of basic theme; the essential life struggles for food, self- 
preservation, and propagation; conflict, physical and spiritual; infinite 
theme material. 

C. Examination 

INSTRUCTION UNIT II 


INSTRUCTION UNIT III 

A. Situation 

Reference to Standard Photoplay Plot Chart; situation, a combination 
of circumstances; the crisis of a situation; the use of the humorous situa¬ 
tion in drama; the use of the melodramatic situation in comedy; avoid¬ 
ing monotony in combining situations. 

B. Examination 

INSTRUCTION UNIT IV 

A. The Movement of Dramatic Action 

Creating suspense; doubt, suspicion, surprise; suspense in comedy; 
suspense in drama; looking toward the happy ending; diagram of 
dramatic action. 

B. Examination 

INSTRUCTION UNIT V 

A. Three Elementary Principles of Narrative 

Unity of action, of time, of place; coherence, the thread that binds 
situations; emphasis; gaining emphasis through contrast. 

B. Examination 


INSTRUCTION UNIT VI 

A. Continuity and Synopsis 

Thorough understanding of continuity necessary to photodramatist; 
analysis of synopsis and continuity of “My Wild Irish Rose” (Vitagraph); 
writing the synopsis. 

B. Visual Interpretation 

Analysis of action; how thoughts may be interpreted in terms of action; 
rewriting the story in terms of action (continuity); drama versus photo¬ 
drama. 

C. Examination 


A. Psychology in Relation to the Photodrama 
Characterization; the effect of character on plot; character and en¬ 
vironment; studying character in life, literature and drama; express¬ 
ing character in action; creating character types; arousing sympathy 
through characterization; arousing antagonism through characteriza¬ 
tion; character development as plot material. 

B. Examination 


27 



















FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



INSTRUCTION UNIT VII 

A. Plot Material 

Reference to Laboratory work; analysis of plays and books; analysis 
of actual incidents; interpretation and use of old themes. 

B. Evolution of the Story 

The beginning, the middle, the end; logical plot development; the 
growth of detail; originality and the avoidance of hackneyed themes. 

C. Examination 

INSTRUCTION UNIT VIII 

A. Resistance 

The basic struggle; the rule of three; factional struggle; diagram show¬ 
ing triangular construction of dramatic struggle; the dramatic triad; 
definite examples in comedy —■ in melodrama —- in straight drama — in 
tragedy. 

B. Examination 

INSTRUCTION UNIT IX 

A. Crisis and Climax 

Why many plays fail; unwinding tangled threads; movement of action 
toward climax; the anticlimax; when to stop. 

B. Dramatic Forms 

Analyses of comedy—farce— burlesque; drama; melodrama; promi¬ 
nent photoplay actors and actresses and their principal successes classi¬ 
fied according to dramatic forms best suited to their art; the relation 
of characterization to types of the photodrama. 

C. Examination 

INSTRUCTION UNIT X 

A. Incidental Action 

Real art in small things; the tricks of technique; heart interest and the 
human element; mystery, curiosity, suspense and hope; introducing 
the beauty element; contrast. 

B. Examination 

INSTRUCTION UNIT XI 

A. Studio Requirements 
The scenario 

Cast of characters; brief synopsis, direct detailed synopsis; main 
title; continuity, subtitles, the inserts, the close-up and the semi¬ 
close-up; the fade and the iris; the dissolve; double exposure; 
the flash; reverse action. 

Preparation and submission of manuscripts. 

B. Studying the Market 

Directory of leading motion picture studios in America and catalog of 
names and addresses of Studio Scenario Editors; permanent demands; 
what subjects to avoid; rules of the National Board of Censors; how 
to study the screen. 

C. Examination 

INSTRUCTION UNIT XII 

A. Review 

Constructive criticism; analysis by the author; points to check up; 
criticism service. 

B. Final Examination 

In connection with Branch A, the student is given the complete 
detailed synopsis and continuity of the Vitagraph Super-Feature 
“My Wild Irish Rose,” as used by the director in the Vitagraph 
Studio — thus clearly illustrating exactly how a photoplay is trans¬ 
posed from the written text to its pictorial version. (A bound vol¬ 
ume of about 126 pages of fine text matter, together with numerous 
illustrations introduce this feature in the course). 

Branch B 

Plot Research Laboratory 

Even the bare outline is rich in suggestion. Look over the 
titles! “Cinderella’s Ancestors,” “1001 Variations of a Popular 
Hero,” “What Are Your Neighbors Doing?” The Fox Photoplay 
Research Laboratory introduces a novel and simple system of 
cataloging ideas for future reference. Each Research Unit con¬ 
tains one practical requirement that awakens and stimulates crea¬ 
tive thought. The Research File that you make while you are 
studying will be of incalculable benefit to you during your career 
as a photodramatist. 

Research Units accompany Instruction Units in regular order 
and are uniform in appearance. They may be bound with Instruc¬ 
tion Units in the Fox Photoplay Institute specially constructed 
binder. 

RESEARCH UNIT I 
How to Build a Situation Catalog 

Analysis of card system; cross-indexing situation material. 
Research and its value to the photodramatist; sources of material. 

Requirement. 

RESEARCH UNIT II 
Plot Material in Real Life 

The struggle against environment; the commonplace and the ex¬ 
traordinary; the real adventures; what are your neighbors doing? 

Requirement 


RESEARCH UNIT III 
Characterization as a Source of Plot Material 

Heredity, and environment; creating characters that work out 
plots for you; the ego urge; the power of “ME.” 

Requirement 

RESEARCH UNIT IV 
The World’s Most Popular Plot 

Cinderella’s Ancestors; 1001 variations of a Favorite Hero. 

Requirement 

RESEARCH UNIT V 

Literature as a Source of Plot Material (First Part) 

Outline history of literature; folk lore and allegory; a gold mine 
of plots. 

Requirement 

RESEARCH UNIT VI 

Literature as a Source of Plot Material (Second Part) 

The epic, the romance, poetry; the literature of thought; the 
King Arthur stories (an example of how plots may be drawn from 
literature.) 

Requirement 

RESEARCH UNIT VII 
Art as a Source of Plot Material 

Inspiration; mythical and historical paintings; what stories could 
you write about these pictures? 

Requirement 

RESEARCH UNIT VIII 
History as a Source of Plot Material 

Great historical photoplays; warning; how historical events may be 
adapted. 

Requirement 

RESEARCH UNIT IX 
The Drama as a Source of Material 

What the public has always wanted; ancient themes and modern; 
new garments for acient themes; avoiding plagiarism. 

Requirement 

RESEARCH UNIT X 
Daily Newspapers as a Source of Material 

Keeping a clipping bureau; finding the underlying motive; the tri¬ 
vial and the important; news value. 

Requirement 

RESEARCH UNIT XI 
The Fertile Field of Imagination 

Day Dreams and their value; avoiding digression; what is creative 
imagination? 

Requirement 

RESEARCH UNIT XII 
Satisfying a Giant Demand 

What does the public really want; sugar-coated pills; the psy¬ 
chology of the happy ending; 9, 795,.230, 492 original combina¬ 
tions of dramatic situations; opportunity. 


Branch C 

The Standard Photoplay Plot Chart 

A valuable reference work which should be in the library of any 
photodramatist. Compiled by Charles Donald Fox, based on the 
classification as outlined by Gozzi, Schiller, Goethe, De Nerval and 
Georges Polti, the Standard Photoplay Plot Chart classifies and 
illustrates the 36 fundamental dramatic situations in direct applica¬ 
tion to the photodrama. (Bound in brown Spanish Leather Keratol, 
uniform with Fox Photoplay Institute binder in one volume of 160 
pages.) 

PART I 

The Law of the Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations—Classification of Situa¬ 
tions — Theme — Characterization — Combining Situations in Plot 
Form — Conflict — The Rule of Three — How Situations Suggest 
Characterization — How Situations Suggest Themes — Avoiding Trite 
Themes—A Word of Warning. 

PART II 

The Thirty-Six Fundamental Dramatic Situations as applied to the 
Photodrama. A comprehensive study and analysis of these situations 
and their many subdivisions; with constructive criticism as to their 
individual value as photoplay plot material. 

PART III 

A. Outline of “Forbidden Fruit” (Paramount Feature Photoplay) with 
analysis of the use of the thirty-six dramatic situations as applied to this 
photoplay. 

B. Reference to detailed synopsis and continuity of Vitagraph Super-Fea¬ 
ture, “My Wild Irish Rose” with, Analysis of the use of the thirty-six 
dramatic situations, and constructive criticism. 

C. Fictionized version of “Forbidden Fruit” to be read and studied by the 
student so that he may understand the outline of the play (Part III, Sec¬ 
tion A). 

PART IV 

The Combination of Situations — Hackneyed Combinations; Creating 
Interest Through Original Combinations — The Logical Development 
of Strong Dramatic Plots — Permanent Use of Situation Guide. 


28 

















FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



Branch D 

Character Analysis of ioo Prominent Motion Picture Stars 

{How to Write for These Stars; the Type Stories They Need 
and Want ) 

A special supplement analyzing each artist’s personality, phy¬ 
sical equipment, past successes and failures with criticism of each 
vehicle telling why it succeeded or failed. Gives the photodrama¬ 
tist a wonderful opportunity to build plot through characterization. 
These ioo representative stars have been chosen because their 
place in the industry is assured and because their popularity will 
endure for years to come. Writing for an individual star and using 
the type of play that is best fitted to his or her art, gives the scen- 
arioist stronger assurance that his manuscript will be given serious 
consideration in studio reading departments. 

Branch E 

Criticism Service 

A practical way of assisting students in the actual construction 
of photodramas. Unlimited criticism is given during the term of 
study. There is no limit to your use of the Criticism Service. 
Careful, constructive criticism is given by a staff well qualified 
for this work, under the personal supervision of Mr. Fox. 

(If, upon completing the course of study, students wish to avail 
themselves of our Criticism Service, a nominal charge of $2.50 per 
Scenario Criticism will be made.) 

Branch F 

Fox Placement Bureau 

Stories of merit are submitted to the studios. The use of the 
Fox Placement Bureau insures the writer that his scenario will be 
given careful consideration because no unworthy scenarios pass 
our staff readers. Studios are aware of this fact and, therefore, 
manuscripts bearing the Fox Seal are given more than the usual 
consideration. The needs of the various studios are studied by the 
Placement Bureau and manuscripts are placed in accordance with 
the studio’s permanent requirements and its temporary needs. 

There is no charge for this service until sale has been made. 
A fee of 10 per cent is then charged for all stories placed. The 
student is, however, under no obligation to use this service, but it 
is of infinitesimal value to the writer, as the Secretary of the Place¬ 


ment Bureau has made a comprehensive study of the Photoplay 
market, and receives regular reports from Los Angeles and New 
York representatives. 

A complete list of the studio addresses and of the names of the 
scenario editors of the various studios is given each student. There¬ 
fore, if you wish to submit your manuscripts independently, you 
can do so. 

Branch G 

Industrial and Educational Training (Elective) 

I bis training is optional. That is, the student is not required to 
study it as a part of his general photoplay education. 

Industrial motion pictures are a rapidly growing factor in com¬ 
merce w T hile the educational motion picture is being used more 
commonly in schools and churches throughout the country every 
day. Writing educational or industrial motion picture continuity, 
and devising clever plots to illustrate a sales argument or exposition, 
is a new profession There are but a few men and women engaged 
in this work at the present time, but in the eyes of all authorities, 
it is a profession that presents almost unlimited opportunities. 

It is easy to see the relation of the general training to the spe¬ 
cialized training in the Industrial and Educational Branch of this 
work. A thorough understanding of Branches “A,” “ B” and “C” 
is absolutely necessary to the educational or industrial motion pic¬ 
ture expert. Any person who contemplates a career along these 
lines should study the Primary Branches as conscientiously as if 
he were going to become a photodramatist. 

Briefly, the training, includes: 

PART I 

Visual Education 

Scope of Visual Education — Visual Education in the Church —- Visual 
Education in Elementary and Grade Schools — Instruction in Advanced 
Subjects through Visual Education — The Value of the Motion Picture 
in Americanization and Settlement Work. 

INDUSTRIAL MOTION PICTURES 

A. Advertising 

Publicity — Educational Advertising — Exposition — Novelty and Ori¬ 
ginality — Use of the Narrative in Motion Picture Advertising — 
Developing “Punch” on a Film — Arousing Desire — Creating Demand. 

B. Selling 

Pictorial Proof — Commodities which may be sold with the Help of the 
Motion Picture — Selling the Storekeeper, the Jobber, the Consumer. 

C. Industrial Education 

Educating Factory Workers — Various uses of Educational Films in 
Industrial Organizations. 


2iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiimimiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiimiiiiiMiiiiiiii<miiiiiimiiiiiiimMiiiiiiiiiiiiiimimiiimmiiiitiiii!= 


In this outline of the course of study it was necessary 
to use many technical terms which may make the training 
appear difficult. However, all these terms are explained in 
the first few lessons and in just a short time you will mas¬ 
ter the elementary principles of dramatic construction. 
Actually the work is very simple. Many of the special fea¬ 
tures included in the Fox Plan of Photoplay Writing are 
original with this institution and absolutely protected 
from infringement by copyright. Therefore, they cannot 
be offered to you by any other institution. 


... 


29 


















FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



Your Questions Answered 

1. What is the age limit of your students? We set no age limit. Any person of high school age or over who is 
ambitious and earnest in his desire to learn photoplay writing is accepted as a student. 

2. What is the cost of this training? See enclosed application blank. 

3. How long does it take to complete this course? This depends entirely upon your ability and the amount 
of time you have to spend on your studies. You are sent the first two Instruction Units and Laboratory Research 
Units the day you enroll. While we are correcting the examinations on your first units you are studying the second. 
The corrected answers to your first Units will be returned to you within a few days. This arrangement provides 
you with lessons to work on at all times. The course covers one year’s training. You may complete it in less time, 
or you may require a longer period of study. If you don’t complete it in that time, you may take just as long as is 
necessary—without extra charge. 

4. Are examination papers carefully corrected, graded and returned to the student each time so that he can see 
what progress he is making? Yes, in every case. 

5. Do we guarantee to answer any questions in regard to the various points brought up in the lessons? 

Yes, you are invited to ask questions whenever you are puzzled about anything in the course. 

6 . What previous education is necessary for a student to achieve success as a photodramatist? A common 
school education is all that is necessary. This training stimulates your imagination and gives you a thorough tech¬ 
nical education in the construction of the photodrama. You do not have to be a fine writer. Erudition and literary 
ability are absolutely non-essential. This training gives you the outline of a broad, general education. 

7. Do Instruction Units, Binder, text books and supplements belong to the student after he has completed the 
course ? Yes. 

8. Do we furnish envelopes, etc. for our students? Yes, free of charge. 

9. Do we pay the postage? We pay the postage on all mail sent to the student. The students pay the postage 
on all mail sent to us. 

10. Do we run the school throughout the entire year? Yes. 

11. Do we have resident classes in photoplay writing? No. We teach this work personally by mail only. You 
are invited to visit our offices whenever possible, but we have no classes here. 

12. May a student write a photoplay before he has finished the course? Yes, as soon as he feels he has adequate 
knowledge of the subject, we desire him to write a scenario. This course is just as valuable to a man or woman 
who has had scenarios accepted by the studios as it is to the amateur. However, we do not encourage students to 
try to write scenarios at the expense of neglecting their training. The various examinations and Research Laboratory 
Requirements provide the student with ample creative and constructive work and he is constantly assimilating plot 
material that he will find valuable when he is actually writing. 

13. If a student submits a scenario for criticism and it is returned to him with comments, is he allowed to re¬ 
vise it and send it back for criticism again? Yes, that is just what we want a student to do. He is invited to make 
unlimited use of the Criticism Service. 

14. Are all manuscripts that are sent in to the Placement Bureau submitted to the studios for consideration? 

All manuscripts are carefully read and passed on by critics before they are allowed to leave our offices. We must 
do this to maintain a reputation for submitting only worth-while scenarios to the studios in order to assure ourselves 
and our students that all manuscripts bearing the Fox Photoplay Institute seal will be given careful consideration. 
Scenarios that are not considered worthy are returned to the student with suggestions for their improvement. 

15. If a student should be compelled to discontinue his studies temporarily, would he be allowed to resume 
them again at a later date? Yes, just as soon as he is able to do so, even after his entire tuition is paid up, for there 
is no time limit on the training. 

16. How should money be sent? Make all payments to Fox Photoplay Institute, 30 North Michigan Avenue, 
Chicago, Ill. Always send money in the form of postal money order, express money order or check. Never send 
silver or paper money in a letter unless the letter is registered. 

17. If I send in my enrollment today, how soon can I get started? Your first Instruction Unit and Labora¬ 
tory Research Unit will be mailed to you the same day your enrollment is received, so you can start at once. 


3 © 



















g -== 

I FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE } 




A Personal Message from Mr. Fox 

I MAGINATION is the Father of Progress. It is the compeller of dreams and dreams are the 
foundation upon which are builded all of life’s outstanding triumphs. In the onward gropings 
of the human race it has ever been the supreme force. It was the stock in trade of the story¬ 
teller of old—and today represents the foundation from which rises the success story of the photo¬ 
dramatist. 

Every outstanding figure of world history was gifted with Imagination. It has given the 
world the enduring beauty of great art, and the inspiring splendor of great achievements. Truly 
it is the mainspring of success. 

Abraham Lincoln possessed Imagination. He fed it by the light of a tallow candle from the 
pages of his mother’s books. He possessed the creative spark and it was kindled to flame. The 
flame swept all before it and he became one of America’s greatest men. Surrounded by handicaps 
he recognized none. 

Within you, too, there is the spark of Imagination. If that spark can be kindled to flame, 
that flame may become a beacon lighting the path upon which you tread to success. Reflect a 
moment upon the handicaps which confronted Lincoln! Did they hinder him in his determination 
to rise above them ? Will you, surrounded by every advantage and opportunity to gain knowledge, 
fail to take full advantage of these opportunities ? 

The study of photoplay writing means growth just as any educational quest does. Quite aside 
from the question of actual cash returns from the scenarios he may sell, the student will derive 
ample returns from the investment of time and money which enrollment in this institution repre¬ 
sents. For the study of photoplay writing adds depth to his understanding and breadth to his 
vision—and are these not desirable rewards? 

Is he not the richer after all by the clearer, and therefore, happier vision of life gained through 
the development of these attributes? Is he not better fitted to make progress in the field of 
endeavor in which we found him? 

I ask these questions in all good faith, because I know the answer certain to be flashed to the 
brain of every thinking person. I am not interested in others because I feel I cannot help them 
to gain success. 

Further words are unnecessary. My message has been told. I have spread before you a pano¬ 
rama of opportunity in a new, uncrowded field. Such an opportunity can only come at rare 
intervals. Now, when the motion picture industry is going through its greatest period of re¬ 
adjustment, is the time for you to affiliate yourself with it. The industry needs an infiltration 
of new blood, new thoughts, new dreams, new ideas, new points of view—in short, new Imagination! 

Will you grasp your opportunity? Will you heed the message I have told you? If you will, what 
limit can any of us place upon your ultimate success? 

If the training we offer does not make a photodramatist of you, may it not yet guide you to 
leadership in the work now claiming your attention? Possibly it will cause to burn within you an 
ambition which has not as yet manifested itself. One thing is certain—it will stir your Imagination 
and benefit you in countless ways. Whatever your bent may be, Imagination will lead you ever 
onward, ever upward, and you, fortunate possessor of this priceless gift, will, by its development, 
take your place besides the apostles of the great new movement in all branches of human thought 
and activity, which is sweeping the world today! 

I welcome you as a student of the Fox Photoplay Institute. If you enroll you can be certain 
you will receive the same careful and thoughtful consideration via the medium of the mails that 
you would receive were you to meet my staff and myself personally. 



31 































FOX PHOTOPLAY INSTITUTE 



And Now You Must Decide 

S UMMED up in the thirty-one pages of this book, you have learned of the advantages of a career 
as photodramatist. 

You have been shown the tremendous need for stories. You have been given the reason for the 
establishment of this institution and its purpose. You have had creative talent defined for you and 
you have been given an opportunity to judge for yourself whether you possess this essential qualifica¬ 
tion. You have been told frankly and conscientiously that we cannot guarantee to make you a 
photodramatist, yet you have been given as much encouragement as possible in the circumstances. 

You know now what film authorities think about your possibilities as a photodramatist, and what 
they say about this training. You know that the Fox Photoplay Institute uses an original and 
practical method of instruction not obtainable from any other institution. You realize that the 
personal examination system keeps your instructors constantly informed of your developing talents, 
and enables them to advise you of the progress you are making. You know that enrollment in this 
institution gives you a thorough training in the essentials of photoplay writing and a solid connection 
with the motion picture industry. 

We have made no attempt to turn your head with fancy phrases and promises of a rich future. 
We have tried to tell you truthfully and frankly just what our course in training will bring you if you 
study it sincerely and conscientiously. 

We are not pretending that we are giving you anything for nothing. Our enrollment fee and tuition 
charge is based on the cost of preparing the course and instructing you individually. 

The benefits you derive from your studies will depend wholly upon the spirit with which you 
work. The sale of one photoplay will pay you many times over the actual cost of the tuition. And 
you will get a great amount of joy out of your studies for they are stimulating to the imagination and 
mentally invigorating. 

You cannot determine now—nor could we determine for you—whether you will make a great 
success as a photodramatist. No examination or test could tell us , for as yet your talents are doubtless 
unawakened, undeveloped. Gradually, as your knowledge increases, as we get to know you better, 
we will be able to direct your talents along the most suitable channels. Now, we can only urge you 
not to let this opportunity slip by. 

When you wrote for this book, you proved you possess two of three essentials, creative talent and 
ambition. 

Now that you realize the value of these splendid qualities, you are not going to fail to derive the 
fullest advantage of them, nor let the lack of technical knowledge remain an obstacle in your path. 

You are at a point where you must make a big decision. This is an important step you are taking. 
It may change the course of your whole life. Do not be too hasty. Weigh the points carefully in 
your mind. Then decide. And act without further hesitation. 

An application for enrollment is enclosed. 


32 














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